Client
cococean
Service
Rebranding
Packaging Design
Partner
Li Xiang / Xing Chen
Team
CD: Xing Chen / Li Xiang
PM: Wu Linxi
D: Xing Chen / Wang Yinan / Wu Linxi / He Ruoxin
MD: Wang Yinan
cococean is a coconut drink chain founded in 2016 in Beijing. cococean is dedicated to making nutritious and tasty Thai coconut more accessible by offering close-to-hand stores everywhere and flavorful options that taste great. They came to us with a clear need: to help them figure out their value proposition and expand the brand through their chains across China online and offline with a more consistent identity. After our research synthesizes, coconut water is not solely a commodity cococean offers to the market. We surprisingly found that there is a healthy life view and lifestyle they aim to introduce to the wider world. We integrated a new motto—“always live like an islander”—into every part of cococean’s daily operation, from its product R&D to brand communications.
Focusing around a central character, a coconut with a straw in it, their former identity was predominantly led by illustrations of it in various organic, witty situations. Though these illustrations had already gained a place in their fan’s hearts, a bigger challenge is facing them: the illustrator-initiated illustrations are too unique to be extended by in-house, which is an obstacle to further expansion. We were asked to help them articulate their value proposition in a clear and compelling way and communicate it with a new, adaptable visual system.
While more and more options are provided in the market, among consumers there’s a growing tendency for a fear of unhealthiness and a hunger for better-quality beverages to arouse. To gain a more intimate understanding of consumer’s views of new rising beverages, our team began extensive field research at the onset of the project, conducting interviews on different consumer segments, visiting and documenting different drink shops and rationales to understand their behaviors and feelings.
It became apparent to UDL that one side of the coconut product spectrum is processed coconut-flavored beverage, and the other side is dizzying coconut tea provided by tea drink chain brands. Overall, consumers usually view coconut drinks as stereotypically a commodity to be beloved by coconut extreme users. Compared with the coffee landscape, there are tons of life routines and living spaces derived from coffee culture. Consuming a cup of coffee is never just for the sake of drinking coffee, but also a very moment giving people joy and creativity to get started their day. It turns out that having an easy enjoyable healthy moment perfectly matches natural coconut water consumers’ aspirations. These insights led to our re-examining the status quo and identifying what ought to be the new industry standards for life, which requires a rebalancing of health, comfort, and self-fulfillment.
Client
cococean
Service
Rebranding
Packaging Design
Partner
Li Xiang / Xing Chen
Team
CD: Xing Chen / Li Xiang
PM: Wu Linxi
D: Xing Chen / Wang Yinan / Wu Linxi / He Ruoxin
MD: Wang Yinan
On the basis of our research, we proposed a concept for cococean: always live like an islander. cococean’s mission is not only bringing nutritious and tasty Thai coconut to urban citizens, but also serving as a medium connecting people, community and the nature, envisioning a healthier lifestyle for more people. How might we design an adaptable brand that embodies its ambition and mission without losing its casual, smart personality and appeal that resonates with consumers became our design challenge.
Imagine truly living on an island saturated with coconut trees, how your life will be like? Rather than stereotypical exoticism, we captured the unique bond and interaction between islanders and their environment - a sunshine, chilled, intimate space constructed by “happy islanders” and “happy community”.
At the centre of the visual communication strategy, We created an extendable illustration system to visually represent a “happy islander”. The characters are inspired by coconut and natural ingredients, and the team designed a methodology enabling everyone to draw a cococean doodle. We purposefully avoid naming these characters to entice viewers and highlight the organic and joyful engagement with a touch of humor and comfort.
We crafted a storytelling and a unique video to vividly communicate the whole new world view of coconut lifestyle with these lovely creatures. We’ve also created WeChat stickers in order to embody these characters into people’s daily life.
We suggested cococean engages with like-minded brands in their brand communication through a combination of digital, retail, and interactive community channels, to inform a refreshing lifestyle and give communal customers easy access to these healthy experiences among their “happy community”.
我们需要通过插画传达自然、轻松、风趣的感受，在形象的设定中，它体现为线条的质朴、笨拙甚至有些随意的样子。团队所有成员都都尝试过怎么画得足够不完美，这对于受过训练的人来说是挺难的事情。最后我们想到用“非惯用手”的方式来解决这个问题——先用非惯用手在纸上绘制，再置入软件调整细节。
从插图、人偶到饼干模具，每个设计都经历了反复测试、建模和打样。这些不厌其烦的过程只有一个目的：以人的真实感受出发，然后把情感通过设计传递。